372 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
JUNE 7 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A. National Joumal io r Country and Suburban Home*. 
Conducted by 
ALBERT 8. C 4RHAH. 
Address 
THE BUBAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Bow, New York. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1884. 
Never, within our remembrance, has 
there been a more favorable season for 
fruits of all kinds and for crons in general. 
Undeb the title of the paper “Rural 
Nkw-Yohkrr,” and under the bull’s bead 
thereof, will be seen the volume (XLITI.) 
and number (1703.) One unit is added to 
this every week. When it is the same as 
the number on your address wrapper, your 
subscription expires. If there is no num¬ 
ber following the name, the subscription 
expires at the end of this year. Please 
examine, and renew a week or so in ad¬ 
vance. 
Our readers may desire to know that 
now (for this climate) is just the time to 
cross wheats. Carefully spread apart the 
glumes and palets (sheaths or envelopes of 
the iloral organs) and, with a pointed 
stick remove the anthers (three in each 
flower). In a day or so, or when the other 
plants begin to blooui, apply pollen or ripe 
anthers from any other variety to the stig¬ 
mas of the flowers from which the authors 
were removed. This should be repeated 
for several days, or until there is no doubt 
that the receptive condition of the stigma 
is past. After each operation, woolen or 
worsted yarn should be w'ound about 
every head operated upon. 
We should be glad if all our readers 
could see the nine plants at the Rural 
Grounds, which are hybrids between 
wheat and rye. The heads of one plant 
are very different from either of these 
grains. Should this cross produce a new 
grain as hardy and prolific as rye, giving 
flour of a better quality, it would prove a 
great acquisition. Ilut we are not prone 
to count chickens before they are hatched. 
The new grain muy prove inferior, in all 
essential particulars, to either parent. 
Meanwhile, it is certainly worthy of being 
recorded that the cross has been effected. 
» -—— 
The origin and history of the so-called 
Mensury or Matishury Barley, seems to be 
shrouded in a good deal of uncertainty. 
It was distributed all over the country by 
the Department of Agriculture, at Wash¬ 
ington, and the seed so distributed was 
obtained of a Mr. N. W. Dean. Madison, 
Wis. Unfortunately, Mr. Dean has been 
dead for some years, and his former clerk, 
Mr. Jewett, now of Fort Dodge, Iowa, 
says his recollection now is that Mr. Dean 
procured it from Iowa, There the matter 
now rests, and it seems to us well that 
some effort be made to get at the true 
history of so good a grain. Will our read¬ 
ers kindly assist in this enterprise by send¬ 
ing to us, at once, such facts as to its ori¬ 
gin or history as they may have? Who 
sold the grain to Mr. Dean? and who was 
the lucky originator? It hardly seems 
possible, that at. this time, all knowledge 
of its origin or early history should be 
lost. Will you aid us, kind friends? 
-- » 
From present indications, it is proba¬ 
ble that this country will harvest, 
this year, the largest wheat crop ever 
raised here. Reports from Europe, too, 
speak very highly of the condition of 
transatlantic wheat. Some time ago, it 
was feared that in Great Britain the re¬ 
markably mild Winter and early Spring 
might force the wheat too much forward; 
but these fears have proved groundless. 
Neither rust nor insects have hitherto in¬ 
jured the crop, and the best authorities 
6ay the staud lias seldom looked so well 
at this season. Barley and oats, too, 
are reported to be in fine condition every¬ 
where. With the prospect of immense 
wheat crops on both sides of the Atlantic, 
it is hardly likely that even speculation 
can raise the price of wheat much higher 
during the current year. 
We are in receipt of cards and notices 
of the semi-centennial celebration of the 
City of Toronto, to be held from June 30 
to July 5 next, it being 50 years since the 
city was incorporated and its name 
changed from York. We congratulate 
Toronto on its rapid growth and material 
prosperity. When, 100 years ago, the 
Indian warrior landed his canoe and 
pitched his tent on the willow-lined shores 
of old York Bay, he little dreamed of the 
bright, busy, bustling city that now fills 
all its shoreR. Not Icbs surprised would 
be those sleepy old Canadians who, in 
1834, reluctantly consented to the change 
of name from York to Toronto, were they 
able to realize the great growth and wealth 
of the place. Canada may be justly proud 
of Toronto, for few cities have made 
more rapid or substantial advancement; 
and we sincerely hope, that its semi-cen¬ 
tennial may duly mark the commencement 
of its prosperity. 
The Canadian live cattle export trade 
increased from $36,000 in 1877 to 
$3,500,000 last year, and special efforts 
are now being made to develop it still fur¬ 
ther. Prof. Brown, of the Guelph Agri¬ 
cultural College, now in Scotland, is urg¬ 
ing the cattle-raisers of Great Britain to 
transfer the scene of their operations to 
Ontario, where stock raising can be car¬ 
ried on at about half the expense involved 
in England, while thoroughbred stock 
sells one-third higher than at home. The 
increase of the Canadian imports has ex¬ 
cited the ill-will of some English farmers, 
who object nearly as strongly to competi¬ 
tion with the Dominion aswith the United 
States, aud whenever plausible grounds 
present themselves, charges are made that 
the Canadian cattle are diseased. Last 
Summer it was alleged that a Canadian 
shipment were suffering from Texas fever; 
ami a fortnight ago it was alleged that 
Canadian cattle sold in Cambridgeshire, 
had foot-and-mouth disease. It has been 
annily proved, however, that the cattle 
had been inspected and found healthy 
before embarkation; that they wore sub¬ 
jected to 10 or 12 days’ quarantine on 
board the ship; that they were inspected 
in Liverpool and declared to be healthy, 
and that after staying four days there, a 
clean bill of health was again given. 
Now\ as foot-and-mouth disease manifests 
itself within three days of inception, if 
these animalB were really suffering from 
the malady in Cambridgeshire, they must 
have contracted it after landing in 
England. 
. - 
BEET SUGAR. 
It is useless to try to create a boom in 
regard to beet sugar. Sugar can be made 
from beets, no doubt; but, as with Mrs. 
Glass’s famous receipt for hare soup, 
which began with “ first catch your hare,” 
so with beet sugar, the beets must, first be 
grown. And American farmers will not 
grow beets for $5 a ton when they can 
get 30 or 40 cents, or even 25 cents per 
bushel for corn. Our friend, the Prairie 
Farmer, is on the wrong track. The new 
broom at the head of the paper eanuot 
sweep this beet, sugar business. There is 
too much hand labor in raising beets 
for it to be profitable. There is too 
much of this “will-o 1 thc-wisp” busi¬ 
ness in this beet sugar boom, which, as it 
swings back, will be apt to take off the 
head of the boomer. Beets are grown in 
countries where corn is not a common 
crop. In competition with corn, the cul¬ 
ture of roots, for feed even, is a very up¬ 
hill work, and sugar beets are quite dif¬ 
ferent from field beets and mangels, and 
vastly more costly to grow. Besides, it is 
a question which has been settled at the 
cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars 
in Illinois, that the rich prairie soils of 
the West have inherent qualities in them 
which make beet-growing for sugar quite 
unprofitable; not that the beets cannot be 
grown—for they can;—but the cost is too 
high, and the effect of the soil is to load 
the beets with the so-called “intractable 
salts” of potash so excessively as to whol¬ 
ly prevent the profitable extraction of the 
sugar. 
•-■ 
SOME MANURE QUESTIONS. 
One can scarcely contemplate our great 
railway system, with its numberless cars 
constantly busy carrying the products of our 
farms cityward, and taking back next to 
nothing to recompense the soil, without 
asking soberly, what is to bo the outcome? 
The. ocean itself would dwindle away, 
under the constant sapping of the sun’s 
rays, were it not constantly replenished 
by a thousand rivers, and our springs 
would soon run dry, did not the clouds 
return their water to the highlands. True, 
in our great Mississippi Valley, we have a 
mine of agricultural wealth that Nature 
has been storing up for unnumbered ages, 
but even this great ocean of fertility must 
become exhausted, if prodigal farming 
continues long enough. The story is al¬ 
ready told in portions of the Orient, where 
are seen ruined cities, slowly decaying in 
the midst of deserts. 
But it will be said that many of our 
more enterprising farmers are using com¬ 
mercial fertilizers upon their farms, with 
decided profit. Very true. But is it 
wise policy that imports guano 3.000 miles 
from Peru, with potash salts from the 
Old World, and phosphate rock from 
South Carolina, to be ground and manipul¬ 
ated by costly machinery, with immense 
power, while the offal of our own cities 
that contains the same fertilizing elements 
is permitted to flow out through sewers 
to he lost in the sea? It would surely 
seem that if half the enterprise and in¬ 
genuity that are expended in bringing 
fertilizing materials from the four corners 
of the earth, were expended in gathering 
and manipulating the pestilential garbage 
of our own cities, putting it into such a 
shape that the farmer can use it,'we might 
have excellent fertilizers at half their 
present cost. Most commercial fertilizers 
now cost the farmers as much as, or more, 
per pound than he receives for his wheat, 
and three-fourths of that price goes to 
transportation companies ana middlemen. 
We have many inventors, and inven¬ 
tions. But very few efforts seem to have 
been directed towards discovering a means 
for utilizing kitchen and chamber waters. 
Even in the country, these noisome sub¬ 
stances are as often a source of offense as 
of income. In the city, they are collected 
together into great channels of fertile filth, 
only to be vomited out again io the sub¬ 
urbs, too often to poison the air and water 
of a whole community. It is not our pur¬ 
pose to lay down plans and specifications, 
but it would seem that these reeking 
streams of disease and death might be 
conducted into some vale of Hinnom, 
where, by patent processes, if need be, or 
composting or cremation, their poison 
could he neutralized, and their nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid and potash he put into a 
shape whereby they may be returned to 
the soil whence they came. 
It is easier to discover faults than to rec¬ 
tify them, and to dream of reformations 
than to accomplish them. One thing, 
however, is clear: a civilization that robs 
its posterity is net of a kind of which to 
boast; and our so-called improvements, 
that only hasten the squandering of our 
agricultural wealth must, sooner or later, 
prove a bane to our national prosperity. 
—« ^ » 
THOUGHT PAYS. 
A careful study of the census report 
shows that the average of crops on the 
farms of this country is exceedingly small; 
scarcely more than paying the cost of pro¬ 
duction, and compelling the owners to 
practice close economy to support their 
families. If we as carefully study the 
farmers and their methods, seeking the 
cause, we shall find that in no other busi¬ 
ness is so little thought used or so 
little time spent in preparing for its 
successful prosecution. Farming is run, 
as it were, in a series of ruts; cer¬ 
tain crops are planted at. stated times in 
a certain way, simply from force of habit, 
or because 6uch happens to be the cus¬ 
tom of the community. A failure is often 
made of a wheat crop on land especially 
adapted to potato culture;barley is grown 
at a loss on land that, would produce mag¬ 
nificent and paying crops of oats. The 
cause of all this is simply a lack of the 
knowledge of the constituents of the soil, 
their adaptation to different plant growths; 
to a lack of sufficient thought on these 
matters. The owners plod along year 
after year with a bare subsistence, with 
little more thought than the teams they 
drive, finding fault with the soil, weather, 
Providence, their business, everything 
but. the right one—their own ignorance. 
That farming itself is not chargeable 
with these results, is proven by the fact, 
that in every community are persons 
whose crops are three or four time as heavy 
as the average yield about them. If we 
seek the cause of these exceptional cases, 
we shall find the answer in the one word, 
thought , and in the application of thought 
to the improvement of all the surround¬ 
ings of the farm. Improved soil and 
stock, improved and selected seeds, im¬ 
proved machinery aud culture; adapta¬ 
tion of the crops to the soils, make these 
larger yields, and these pay a good mar¬ 
gin for profit;and these farmers are every¬ 
where pointed at as the “lucky” farmers. 
Such success is due to the constant em¬ 
ployment of the owners’ brains, in his 
business. As he turns the furrows he is 
constantly studying the soil he is rolling 
over, and trying to discover its needs, 
and how he can increase its productive¬ 
ness; as he feeds the stock, he is think¬ 
ing how he can combine their food, how 
add other ingredients, how prepare it so 
that, the animals can be induced to eat 
and digeBt a larger ration in the same 
time, so as to^make greater gain. He is 
constantly seeking to know how he can 
improve his stock by more careful 
breeding, how he can improve his crops 
by securing seed of improved varieties, or 
by more carefully selecting seeds from 
those ho already has. He is a constant 
attendant at the farmers’ club, if there is 
one within bis reach; his shelves are filled 
with well-worn books on agricultural top¬ 
ics, and his table is covered with the best 
agricultural papers. The best are to him 
always the cheapest. His conversation is 
not of politics or general gossip, but of 
the farm, and how he can make it better, 
ne never seems quite satisfied with any 
crop he ever has produced, but is con¬ 
stantly seeking to excel by raising a larger 
and more paying one. In other words, he 
seeks by all means to keep himself thor¬ 
oughly posted in his business. The same 
causes, that make these few men excep¬ 
tionally successful would make all equal¬ 
ly so. 
What the American farmer mostly 
needs is more knowledge; a closer study 
of the peculiarities of his soils, their needs 
and adaptation to special crops; a better 
knowledge of the constituents of the dif¬ 
ferent manures, and especially a knowl¬ 
edge of how to make, save and apply a 
larger quantity of a better quality of barn¬ 
yard manure. It is not at all necessary 
that this knowledge should be obtained 
from books; practical experience and 
close observation of the results of other 
people’s experience, are of the greatest 
utility, and books are useful only as they 
contain the recorded results of the expe¬ 
rience of people whom we have never seen 
and cannot reach, and as such should not 
be despised. We are glad of the multipli¬ 
cation of good agricultural papers and of 
experiment stations, and of the establish¬ 
ment. in so many States of farmers’ insti¬ 
tutes. We hail any and all means that 
shall spread practical scientific informa¬ 
tion among the farmers; that shall teach 
them to think! 
BREVITIES. 
Hoe early and hoe often. An active hoe is 
a good substitute for manure. 
Ok all our potatoes, the Pearl of Savoy is 
the first to bloom. Is it therefore the earliest? 
Nut necessarily, we guess. 
A light steel mice is worth twice as much 
as a hoe in the garden, anda good wheel hoe is 
worth as much as both. 
Don’t try to spread over too many acres, 
but rather to make what you do go over, 
deeper and richer; there is where the money 
is! 
Look out for the weeds; they come like a 
thief in the night. You can kill a thousand 
when but a day old, easier than one when half 
grown, 
On the 14th and I6th of March we placed 
hens on 26 Wyandotte aud IS Black Sumatra 
eggs. We have now II chicks, throe of which 
are Sumatras Both breeds are immense 
scratebers, so that we were obliged to put up 
the wire netting to keep them iu the hen yards. 
We are much in favor of cultivating corn 
as soon as the drills or hills can be seen, not 
for the purpose of killing weeds alone, but to 
loosen the soil which is compacted by frequent 
rains. It it bad economy to defer cultivation 
until the growth of weeds renders it neces¬ 
sary, 
Thk striped i»eetle lays its eggs on the main 
stems of melon and cucumber viues near the 
soil. The grubs from these eggs eat into the 
stems, and the wilting and death of the vines 
follow. We shall syringe our vines with the 
kerosene emulsion as soon as the striped beetle 
appears. Whole oil, carbolic acid, or tobacco, 
suitably diluted with water, might keep them 
away from the vines. 
In times of peace prepare for war. When 
you are. eating that nice, fragrant, yellow grass 
butter remember that with the proper food the 
cows would make just as good butter next 
Winter; and set about raising sufficient man¬ 
gels or carrots so they can each have a gene¬ 
rous feed every day next W'inter. Don’t de¬ 
lay another day, because it will pay twice 
over, pay in the quantity and quality of the 
butter and in the health fulness of the stock. 
Have you sowed those roots for the stock 
yet? It is not yet too late to put in Swede 
turnip any time before June 20tb, aud they 
are excellent food for auy stock except milch 
cows; the same treatment recommended in 
the Rural May 24 for mangels, is equally 
as good for Swedes. Don’t forget that some 
sort of succulent food for the breeding stock, 
next Winter is worth more than gruin. It 
may save you the life of a valuable animal. 
The bill establishing a Bureau of Animal 
Industry in connection with the Department 
of Agriculture, has passed both Houses of 
Congress iu an emasculated form, and 
awaits the President's signature. In its 
“amended” shape, all the remedial provi¬ 
sions are eliminated—the offices only are 
left. Should contagious disease break out 
among the vast herds of the West, the Bureau 
is to “investigate” and report at a future time 
to Congress, it has no power to take any ac¬ 
tion whatever. It is openly charged that this 
result was brought about by a powerful lobby 
working in the interests of the stock salesmen 
of Chicago, and the railroads which feared 
that their business might possibly be curtailed 
by the enforcement of the proposed legislation 
in case of an outbreak. 
